In a drop of fountain water

Oct 14, 2015 • 12:19 AM UTC

Unknown Location

140x Magnification

Microorganisms

Ivan Rey

Learn about the author...

2posts

5comments

0locations

Last weekend while I was preparing a microscopy course based on the use of the foldscope I started looking for samples at my parent’s house. In their garden they have a water fountain that is frequently visited by birds (birds usually take baths there and use them as restroom too) the water of this fountain looked really murky so I took a little and looked at it under the Foldscope (low mag lens), I was not disappointed!
I found a very interesting bug of about 900 um in length

When I looked closer at it I found what looks like a paramecium! (On your left)

Zooming out I was able to observe that the bug was next to what looked like a dead mosquito larva (this image in particular was taken few days later)

Then, by zooming in on the dead larva I found what looked like an scavenger carnival! Several unknown (for me at least!) life forms (any ideas on what are those?)

I was so excited that I even recorded a video and captured very small (unidentified) creatures moving around!
2015-10-04 19.37.22

In a drop of fountain water

Ivan Rey

More Posts from Ivan Rey